N.J. congressmen have pivotal role in gun bill: Opinion

Updated December 10, 2013 at 8:23 AM;Posted December 10, 2013 at 7:00 AM

Newtown School Shooting - Six-Month Anniversary

A child gazes from a school bus as it passes by the St. Rose of Lima Catholic church while mourners gathered for a funeral service for shooting victim Jessica Rekos, 6, on December 18, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut.
(John Moore/Getty Images)

As the country prepares to observe Saturday’s first anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., New Jersey is poised to play what we hope will be a salutary role in thus far fruitless efforts to pass legislation that would help keep guns out of the hands of those who are not allowed to own them.

More than 100 New Jersey mayors are members of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group formed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to curb gun violence by diminishing the flow of illegal firearms.

Both of our state’s U.S. senators are on record supporting the Manchin-Toomey bill — which would make gun trafficking a federal crime and would expand background checks to cover sales at gun shows and on the internet — and four members of New Jersey’s delegation to the House of Representatives are in a position to play a key role in the passage of the King-Thompson bill, the House version of the Manchin-Toomey legislation.

Proponents of King-Thompson believe the votes of Reps. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.), Leonard Lance (R-7th), John Runyan (R-3rd) and Chris Smith (R-4th) may be essential to passing legislation that will help keep guns out of the wrong hands.
As the bishops of the two Episcopal dioceses in New Jersey, we pray that the political leaders in our state can help break a partisan deadlock that has lethal consequences.

Last week, the leaders of organizations as theologically diverse as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Sikh Council on Religion and Education sent a letter to all members of Congress urging them to pass the Manchin-Toomey or King-Thompson legislation. The breadth of this effort, organized by Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence, is encouraging to those of us who believe that curbing gun violence should be among the top priorities of religious leaders around the country.

According to a recent study by the group to which so many of our state’s mayors belong, about 40 percent of the gun sales in this country each year — accounting for some 6.6 million guns — are not subject to federal background checks because they are not sold by licensed gun dealers, but are acquired in transactions at gun shows, online or in person. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have instituted their own system of checks, however, with excellent results.

Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that in these jurisdictions, 38 percent fewer women are shot to death by their husbands or partners and 39 percent fewer law enforcement officers are shot to death with handguns other than their own. States that have closed the private sale loophole also find that far fewer of the guns they recover at crime scenes were brought in from out of state.

The National Rifle Association supported the creation of the national background check system, but now opposes closing the private sale loophole. We find the NRA’s unwillingness to support regulation of the vast online firearms marketplace — in which felons and individuals with records of domestic violence can easily acquire a weapon — callous and profoundly misguided at a time when our society has been so gravely wounded by men and women brandishing guns that sensible legislation might have kept out of their hands.

On this sorrowful anniversary, we pray that New Jersey’s elected leaders will seize the opportunity provided by Newtown and the mounting daily toll of gun violence loss on our streets and in our homes. It is long past time to curb the violence that besets us all.

The Rt. Rev. Mark Beckwith is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, which comprises the northern part of the state. The Rt. Rev. William Stokes is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey, which includes Trenton and the south and central parts of the state.